Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending July 5, 2014)

Another chance to catch the most interesting, and important, articles from the previous week on MIT Technology Review.

July 4, 2014

Two-Bladed Wind Turbines Make a Comeback
Wind-turbine designers are warming up to an alternative to the three-bladed rotors that have been an industry standard for the past quarter-century.
IBM: Commercial Nanotube Transistors Are Coming Soon
Chips made with nanotube transistors, which could be five times faster, should be ready around 2020, says IBM.
Facebook’s Emotional Manipulation Study Is Just the Latest Effort to Prod Users
With emotion-triggering effort, Facebook pushes beyond data-driven studies on voting, sharing, and organ-donation prompts to make people feel good or bad.
Refriending Facebook
Outrage over Facebook’s “emotional contagion” experiment shows a general misunderstanding of what Facebook is and how it works.
Super-Slick Material Stops Ice from Forming
The first application of a novel water-repellent material from Harvard could be low-energy freezers.
Smart Home Devices Need to Get a Lot Smarter
Imagine a dishwasher that requires a username and password. Smart homes will require unprecedented effort to ensure not just security but also usability.
Fake Followers for Hire, and How to Spot Them
It’s possible to buy a good reputation on the Internet for a modest price, but some are trying to put an end to that.